Re: Just an FYI concerning the beta artwork

From: Máirín Duffy <mairin linuxgrrl com>

To: Fedora Art List <fedora-art-list redhat com>

Subject: Re: Just an FYI concerning the beta artwork

Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:52:58 -0700 (PDT)

Hello Jeff,
Thank you for bringing this serious matter to our attention -
----- Original Message ----
> From: Jeff Spaleta <jspaleta gmail com>
> To: Fedora Art List <fedora-art-list redhat com>
> Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 2:55:51 PM
> Subject: Just an FYI concerning the beta artwork
>
> I hadn't seen anyone else bring this perspective up concerning the
> wallpaper in the beta and I thought it deserved attention for your
> consideration as a group.
>
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-olpc-list/2009-March/msg00147.html
>
> "Seems to me whoever chose the background that was introduced last
> week did not consider that items with overtones of dissentious
> subjects such as politics or religion might elicit emotional
> reactions. I'm concerned that when my system prominently shows a
> picture with a temple, that might be interpreted as "Mikus worships
> paganism"
>
>
> To my reckoning this is the first Fedora artwork that has had culture
> specific elements in it, so this sort of issue might never have been
> raised in prior discussions. I don't know, I mostly lurk. But I'm
> bringing it to your attention to make sure you see that reaction.
I totally agree. I can't believe I didn't even think about this. We need to stop the presses, immediately. Shut down all Fedora yum repo mirrors, we must stop distributing this artwork immediately. I cannot believe we let something like this out, something so divisive and controversial. I assure you it won't happen again. You see, Fedora really has a big problem on its hands here, and I will personally make it my responsibility to rectify the situation:
First up - this Paul Frields guy - who puts a guy named "Paul" in charge of something? "Paul" is one of the apostles of that Jesus guy, right? A saint at least. We can't have that. No siree. We cannot have any possible reference to any organized religion in our utopian operating system's leadership. We need someone like me in charge of Fedora. Máirín - sure it's the Gaelic diminutive of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus, but it's got ACCENT MARKS. That totally makes it okay. Effective immediately, we have to revoke Fedora version control access to anyone with a name that has religious roots. We've got to nip this in the bud.
Then, we've got this other problem. See, we have this color "blue" that symbolizes Fedora. This is a MAJOR problem, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue#Religion - Not only is blue an important, symbolic color in the Hindu religion, but it's also an important color in Judaism! We've got a major, major problem here. As soon as I'm stated as the new Fedora project leader, I will change the official Fedora color to blah grey, because that can't possibly symbolize ANYTHING.
In fact, I think we need to cancel the Fedora art team. From now on, all of our artwork will just be blah grey-colored squares. We just can't risk offending anyone. Done and done!
Ahhhh! Oh, my go... er, erm whoah whoah Nelly there! I *really* mean, oh my "gads"! I just realized, this is way bigger a problem than we originally thought. This goes way beyond Fedora. Check this out:
- The New York Public Library: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72131699 N00/238786611/ (They featured this building in Spiderman! The insensitive, incendiary clods! This is supposed to be a library! A place of higher learning! Above religion! It's indelibly marked with religious conflict all over it! It looks JUST LIKE A TEMPLE. How could I not have seen this before????)
- The White House: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathleen-andersen/237167863/ (There go those Americans again, stirring up deeply-rooted religious strife by making their president's accomodations resemble a Greek temple! So much for the separation of church and state!)
- apple.com - these computers are swiftly gaining popularity. We have to stop this scourge. I mean, clearly "Apple" is a reference to a Biblical passage involving a garden and snakes and naked people and that sort of thing. How offensive!
- Battlestar Galactica - they've got this kind of chorus-y hymn-sounding chanting for a theme song. Kind of like religious chanting! They are obviously broadcasting subliminal religious messages. Good thing you brought this conspiracy up. Now we can warn the good people of the world!
I'm just too distraught to carry on. I feel like my entire world is full of these things symbolizing other things, and I'm finding myself strangely offended by everything. Like the crown molding along the ceiling of my apartment, which now looks like the columns of a temple. Or the weave pattern in the rug beneath my feet, which seems to contain some hidden heathen message. Crap. I'm typing this all on a computer with FEDORA on it, with a blue Fedora logo in the upper left corner and that horrible, awful religious wallpaper. My palms are tingling. I'm going to go run to the kitchen and scrub them with a Brillo pad... oh crap, those are blue aren't they. Bleach! I'll scrub them with bleach. Wait isn't the color white symbolic of the afterlife? Well... I'm just going to drop the laptop now and run as far away as I can.
Stay safe!
~m